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Rhondda Leader

29 September 2013

The Rhondda Leader is a weekly tabloid newspaper sold in the Rhondda Valley in the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf in Mid Glamorgan, covering both valleys – Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach – and taking in the towns of Tonypandy, Ystrad, Treorchy, Treherbert, Porth, Maerdy and Ferndale.

Originally founded in 1899 as The Rhondda Leader, it changed its name in 1908 to The Rhondda Leader, Maesteg, Garw and Ogmore Telegraph. At the end of 1921 it merged with the Glamorgan Free Press, Pontypridd & Rhondda Chronicle and became the Glamorgan Free Press and Rhondda Leader, then simply the Free Press and Rhondda Leader from 1929. In 1944 it absorbed the 1900 foundation The Porth Gazette, which became the Porth Gazette and Rhondda Leader; the main edition continued as the Rhondda Leader & Gazette. From 1967 the local editions were discontinued and the newspaper assumed its current title.